Expedition 32/33 Soyuz commander Yuri Malenchenko, NASA flight engineer Suni Williams and flight engineer Aki Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency conducted qualification training at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia on June 19 and 20, 2012 in advance of their final approval for their launch to the International Space Station.

Malenchenko, Williams and Hoshide are scheduled to depart for the launch site at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on July 2 to prepare for their July 15 liftoff in the Soyuz TMA-05M spacecraft.

Also in this footage are backup crew members Roman Romanenko, Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency and NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn.

Robert Pearlman

NASA video release

Soyuz TMA-05M crew prepares for launch

TMA-05M commander Yuri Malenchenko, NASA flight engineer Suni Williams and flight engineer Aki Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency participated in a variety of activities from July 2 to 10 as they prepared for launch to the International Space Station from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on July 15.

This footage includes the crew's arrival, suited and unsuited fit checks in the Soyuz spacecraft, raising of flags outside the Cosmonaut Hotel crew quarters and other traditional activities.

The Soyuz TMA-05M spacecraft was mated to its booster rocket at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on July 11 as part of final preparations before launch to the International Space Station on July 15.

Robert Pearlman

NASA photo release

Soyuz TMA-05M rolled out to launch pad

The Soyuz TMA-05M spacecraft was rolled out by train and erected on its launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Thursday, July 12, 2012.

Nearly 40 years after the launch of the first international space mission, a crew of three veteran space travelers from three different countries embarked on Saturday (July 14) for the International Space Station.

At the launch site, it was 8:40 a.m. on Sunday (July 15), coinciding with the 37th anniversary of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP). The 1975 mission brought together American and Soviet spacecraft for an "orbital handshake" between the early Space Race competitors.

After the hatches between the Soyuz and space station were opened, Expedition 32 commander Gennady Padalka and flight engineers Joe Acaba and Sergei Revin welcomed aboard the TMA-05M crewmates, Malenchenko, Sunita Williams and Akihiko Hoshide, for their 5-month stay on the orbiting complex.

This marks Malenchenko's third long-duration stay aboard the station, after commanding Expedition 7 and serving as an Expedition 16 flight engineer, and Williams' second, after serving as an Expedition 14/15 flight engineer. This is Hoshide's first expedition on board the station.

The Soyuz TMA-05M docking coincided with the 37th anniversary of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project docking in 1975, which marked the first time international spacecraft joined in orbit.

A record-setting female space station commander, a veteran Russian cosmonaut, and a Japanese flight engineer returned to Earth Sunday (Nov. 18), their Russian spacecraft descending under parachute to a pre-dawn landing in Kazakhstan after four months off the planet.

The Soyuz TMA-05M capsule safely made it to the ground with NASA astronaut Sunita "Suni" Williams, Roscosmos cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, and astronaut Akihiko "Aki" Hoshide with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency on board. The spacecraft landed on its side at 8:56 p.m. EST (0153 GMT; 7:56 a.m. local time Nov. 19), an hour before sunrise near the targeted landing area located northeast of the remote town of Arkalyk.